Lester gets third Opening Day for Sox as pitching staff looks strong

Wednesday

Mar 27, 2013 at 5:29 PM

FORT MYERS, Fla. — That Jon Lester will be making his third straight Opening Day start for the Red Sox is no surprise. Lester could have spent the entire spring giving up rockets, and he still probably...

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

FORT MYERS, Fla. — That Jon Lester will be making his third straight Opening Day start for the Red Sox is no surprise. Lester could have spent the entire spring giving up rockets, and he still probably would have gotten the ball on Opening Day.

That Lester and the rest of the Red Sox starting rotation has looked so dominant this spring, that might be more of a surprise — and a reason for optimism after a disastrous season.

Lester tossed four scoreless innings on Wednesday in his final tune-up before Opening Day, striking out four and walking no one. His ERA fell to a remarkable 0.75 in the 24 innings he has pitched in Grapefruit League games this spring.

But Lester hasn’t been the only standout. As a group, the Red Sox have a 2.44 ERA with 67 strikeouts and 21 walks in 85 innings pitched. Clay Buchholz has a sub-1.00 ERA as well. Newcomer Ryan Dempster checks in at a solid 3.06. Felix Doubront (4.15 ERA in 13 innings) and John Lackey (5.40 ERA in 112/3 innings) have been inconsistent but encouraging.

Most important, all five starters appear poised at least to be average or better — a reliability the Red Sox have lacked in recent years — and to be healthy. It’s a stark contrast to the starting rotations in Toronto (where one-time ace Ricky Romero was shipped to Single-A to sort out his struggles), Baltimore (where Chris Tillman has dealt with abdominal soreness) or New York (where Phil Hughes has dealt with a back injury).

For the first time in several years, the Red Sox go into the season with a rotation they can feel good about from top to bottom.

“Our rotation is going to give us an element of consistency, and that comes every single night,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “You can’t stress that importance enough. That has to become a cornerstone of this team.”

“We’ve got some guys who work hard and some guys with good track records,” Lackey said recently. “We expect to have some good results.”

The Bobby Valentine melodrama garnered most of the headlines a year ago, but the underperformance of the starting rotation did most of the damage to the Red Sox playoff hopes. The only pitcher to post an ERA under 4.50 in his starts was Franklin Morales (4.14). Everyone else had an ERA of 4.56 or worse — the worst offenders being Aaron Cook (5.65), Daniel Bard (5.30) and Josh Beckett (5.23).

Lester finished with a 4.82 ERA, easily the worst of his career. A turnaround from him seemed like a prerequisite for playoff contention as spring training began. All indications are that the turnaround is well under way.

“He’s gotten back to a delivery that has been similar to his in the past,” Farrell said of Lester. “He’s executing pitches with the consistency as we’ve seen before, which made him one of the top left-handers in the game. He’s had a very strong spring training.”

Lester never could figure out how to solve what was causing him problems a year ago. Given a winter off and a spring training with which to work on his mechanics, it all appears to be coming together.

“I fell into some bad habits and couldn’t get myself out of them until the middle of last year,” he said. “Right after the All-Star break, we finally overhauled everything and got back to being me, using my frame. I was pitching like a guy who was 5-10 as opposed to 6-4. It makes a big difference on the way the ball comes in the zone.”

Thinking back to the way he delivered the ball last season — something he’s reviewed on video to observe his body position — Lester could only smile wryly.

“It’s really bad,” he said.

Now, not only does Lester feel like he wants to feel, but he’s getting results.

“It reinforces all the work you put into it and the adjustments,” he said. “You see the swings at certain pitches and it’s like, ‘Man, this is me.’”

Getting Lester on track is on the first step, however. Everyone behind him has to do their part. Buchholz has to pitch like the No. 2 starter he was from mid-May onward last season. Dempster, Doubront and Lackey don’t have to pitch like All-Stars, but they have to pitch better than Cook or Daisuke Matsuzaka did.

“It’s going to take more than me and Lester going out there and having good seasons,” Buchholz said recently. “It’s a group effort as far as the starting staff goes. Everybody looks ready. Everybody looks fresh every time they’re out there. Their pitches are crisp. It’s definitely going to be fun to watch.”